Typical gas-fired water heaters are constructed for installation and operation in indoor spaces such as basements, garages, laundryrooms, closets and the like. Many such constructions do not have a chimney available for use as a means to exhaust flue gases or products of combustion from the water heater. Accordingly, other flue exhaust systems have been developed which exhaust flue gases from the building in an alternate manner. Representative examples include the water heaters disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,672,919 and 5,255,665.
Since such water heaters do not utilize the natural draft afforded by a chimney, such water heaters are equipped with fans or blowers to assist the flue gases or combustion products from the upper portion of the water heater outwardly of the building. The presence of the fans or blowers presents the potential for flue gases to exhaust into the interior space if the fan or blower is not working properly or if there is blockage of the conduit extending from the fan or blower to the exterior of the building. Thus, various measures have been taken to help increase the safety factor in the operation of such water heaters.
Another difficulty with many locations for water heaters is that the locations are also used for storage of other equipment such as lawn mowers, trimmers, snow blowers and the like. It is a common procedure for such machinery to be refueled in such locations.
There have been a number of reported instances of spilled gasoline and associated extraneous fumes being accidently ignited. There are many available ignition sources, such as refrigerators, running engines, electric motors, electric and gas dryers, electric light switches and the like. However, gas water heaters have sometimes been suspected because they often have a pilot flame.
Vapors from spilled or escaping flammable liquid or gaseous substances in a space in which an ignition source is present provides for ignition potential. "Extraneous fumes," "extraneous fumes species," "fumes" or "extraneous gases" are sometimes hereinafter used to encompass gases, vapors or fumes generated by a wide variety of liquid volatile or semi-volatile substances such as gasoline, kerosene, turpentine, alcohols, insect repellent, weed killer, solvents and the like as well as non-liquid substances such as propane, methane, butane and the like.
It has been reported that the spillage is sometimes at floor level and, it is reasoned, that it spreads outwardly from the spill at first close to floor level. Without appreciable forced mixing, the air/fuel mixture would tend to be at its most flammable levels close to floor level for a longer period before it would slowly diffuse towards the ceiling of the room space. The principal reason for this observation is that the density of fumes typically involved is not greatly dissimilar to that of air. Combined with the tendency of ignitable concentrations of the fumes being at or near floor level is the fact that many gas appliances often have their source of ignition at or near that level.
The invention aims to substantially raise the probability of successful confinement of ignition of spilled flammable substances from typical spillage situations to the inside of the combustion chamber.